1. Pidgins and Creoles

2. Pidgins and Creoles
A pidgin is a contact language that developed in a situation where speakers of different languages need a language to communicate.
A pidgin becomes a creole when it is adopted as the native language of a speech community.

3. Creoles in the Caribbean

4. Superstrate and substrate languages
Superstrate language
Provides the bulk of the vocabulary and is more prestigeous. (also called the ‘lexifier language’)
Substrate languages
Provide a few words but may have significant influence on the grammatical structure.

5. Pidgin and creole studies
Pidgin and creole languages have been studied extensively in linguistics:
Sociolinguistic aspects
Grammaticalization
The innateness hypothesis

6. Butler English
Butler English is a pidgin language spoken in India. The language emerged when Indian servants had to find a way to communicate with their English masters. It is still spoken in hotels, clubs, and households.

7. Butler English 1. Omission of grammatical morphemes
(1) Because ball is going nearly 200 yards.
(2) Members hitting ball.
2. No inflectional morphology
(1) two spoon coffee
(2) Master like it.

8. Butler English 3. Me vs. I Me not drinking madam
4. Extensive use of progressive verb forms
and putting masala and
5. No copula
That the garden.

9. Butler English 6. Negation without auxiliary then I not worry
No water add.
7. ‘No’ (or ‘eh’) is used as a general tag-question
English-speaking sabih is all gone, no?
He nice, eh?

10. PNG - Tok Pisin

11. Melanesian Pidgin Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea Bislama Vanuatu
Pijin Solomon Islands

12. Papua New Guinea
Independence
1975

13. Tok Pisin Newspaper
Wantok

14. Papua New Guinea
Urban centers

15. Creolisation
In urban centers, the children of mixed couples learn Tok Pisin as their first language.
Thus, Tok Pisin is changing from an ‘extended pidgin’ to a creole language.

16. Tok Pisin - Vocabulary spak (‘spark’) = drunk nogut (‘no good’) = bad
baimbai (‘by and by’) = soon
sekan (‘shake hands’) = to make peace
kilim (‘kill him’) = to kill /hit /beat
pisin (‘pigeon’) = bird / pidgin
gras (‘grass’) = gras /hair /fur

17. Tok Pisin – Word Formation
gras = gras/hair/fur
mausgras = moustache
gras bilong hed = hair
‘grass belong head’
gras belong fes = beard
‘grass belong face
gras belong pisin = feathers
‘grass belong bird’
gras antap long ai = eyebrow
‘grass on top of long eye’

18. Tok Pisin – Word Formation
man bilong save > saveman ‘expert’
‘man belong know’

19. Tok Pisin - Vocabulary Tolai lapun old kumul bird of paradise
palai lizard
Malay
binatang insect
lombo chilli
sayor vegetable leaf

20. Tok Pisin - Vocabulary German gumi rubber beten pray raus get out
bros chest

21. Tok Pisin

22. PNG - Tok Pisin

23. Melanesian Pidgin Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea Bislama Vanuatu
Pijin Solomon Islands

24. Tok Pisin Superstrate language: English Substrate language:
Austronesian and Papuan languages

25. Tok Pisin Vocabulary
The bulk of the vocabulary comes from English (i.e. the superstrate language).
In addition, Tok Pisin includes words from various Austronesian and Papuan languages (e.g. Tolai, Malay).
Finally, Tok Pisin includes some words of German origin (e.g. gumi, beten, raus)

26. Tok Pisin – Word Formation
gras = gras/hair/fur
mausgras = moustache
gras bilong hed = hair
‘grass belong head’
gras belong fes = beard
‘grass belong face
gras antap long ai = eyebrow
‘grass on top of long eye’

27. Plural marker (1) nil nil ‘spines’ needle needle (2) SG PL yu yu-pela
bik haus bik-pela haus
-pela ‘fellow’
(3) SG PL
man ol man
ol ‘all’

28. Pronouns em he / she / it SUBJ him / her / it OBJ yu you SG
yutupela you two DUAL
yutripela you three TRIAL
yupela you all PL

29. Causative/transitive marker
(1) Em i rit ‘He is reading.’
Em i ritim buk ‘He’s reading a book.’
(2) Wara i boil pinis ‘The water has boiled.’
Meri i boilim wara pinis ‘The woman has boiled the water.’
(3) Bai mi rait. ‘I’ll write.’
Bai i raitim pas. ‘I’ll write a letter.’
make him > makim
boil him > tellim

30. Predicative Marker (1) a. mi kam ‘I come’ b. yu kam ‘You come’
c. em i kam ‘He/she comes’
d. Tom i wok ‘Tom works’
(2) The man, he talked to the woman.

31. Qustion Words Tok Pisin wanem ‘what name’ = ‘what/which’
husat ‘who’s that’ = ‘who’
Guyanese Creole
wisaid ‘which side’ = ‘where’
wa mek ‘what makes’ = ‘why’
Cameroon Creole
wetin ‘what thing’ = ‘what’

32. Word Order
(1) mi kukim rais.
I cook rice
‘I cooked the rice.’

33. Complex Sentences (1) Mi no save. Ol I wokim dispela haus.
I don’t know (that) they work in this house.
(2) Mi no save olsem ol i wokim dispela haus.
‘I didn’t know that they built this house.’

34. Relative clauses (1) Stereo ia mitla putim lo kout ia, em no lukim.
‘The stereo which we put in the coat he didn’t see.’
(2) ia: here > the > REL
(3) [[tree] here]
[that has leaves] here]]

35. Verb Phrase in Krio a bin rait ‘I wrote’ a de rait ‘I am writing’
a bin de rait ‘I was writing’
a don rait ‘I have written’
a bin don rait ‘I had written’
a bin don de rait ‘I had been writing’

36. Verb Phrase in Krio
bin = PAST
de = PROGRESSIVE
don = PERFECT

37. Future (1) em bai kam He/she will come ‘He/she will come’
bai ‘by and by’

38. Past
(1) Em bin tok
He/she PAST say
‘He/she said …
Bin ‛been’

39. Immediate Future (1) em i laik go long gaden
(S)he P is about to go to the garden
‘He/she is about to go to the garden.’
laik ‛like’

40. Perfect (1) mi kukim pinis I cook COMPLETE ‘I have cooked it.’
pinis ‛finish’

41. Habitual marker (1) Miplea sa harim ol gan i pairap.
We HAB hear PL gun P fire
‘We heard the guns firing.’
sa ‛save’ > ‛know’ > Habitual

42. Continuous marker (1) ol i wokabout i stap. They P walk CONT
‘They were walking.’
i stap ???

43. How does a pidgin language develop grammatical expressions?
What drives the process of creolisation?

44. The Bioprogram Hypothesis
The human species comes equipped… with the capacity to reconstitute language itself - should the normal generation-to-generation transmission of input data be inserted or distorted by extralinguistic forces.
(Muysken & Bickerton 1988)

45. Grammaticalization Source Target: AUX go (motion) gonna
will (intention) will
have (possession) have

46. Grammaticalization Source Target: P during (verb) during
in front of (PP) in front of
a-gone (PRE-verb) ago

47. Grammaticalization Source Target: CONJ by cause (PP) because
DEM while SUB while
given given

48. Grammaticalization Source Target: PRO/ART some body (NP) somebody
one (numeral) the one
one (numeral) a

49. Grammaticalization
Source Target: Bound
NOUN -ly
NOUN -hood
did -ed

50. Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization is cross-linguistically so pervasive that some linguists suggested that all grammatical expressions are eventually derived from a lexical source.

51. Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization is of central signifiance for the theory of language:
Challenges rigid division between lexicon and grammar.
Challenges the assumption that grammatical categories have clear-cut boundaries.
Suggests that grammar is dynamic and emergent.

52. African American English

53. African American English
The origin of AAE
1. Pidgin/creole
2. Second language of a particular variety of English spoken in the South.

54. The African Substratum Hypothesis
Since the first slaves spoke a variety of African languages and since they had only little contact with their white masters, they used a simplified version of English with elements of their native language as a lingua france. AAE developed from this early pidgin/creole language.

55. The English Origin Hypothesis
When the first African slaves where brought to America, they gave up their African languages and learned the English variety that was spoken at that time in the south. According to this hypothesis, AAE shows many linguistic features of this substandard variety of southern American English, which explains why AAE and the southern variety of white American English are relatively similar.

56. African American English
Until the beginning of the 20th century, 90% of all African American lived in the South, mainly in rural areas.

57. African American English
Today, more than 60% of all African Americans live in the non-South, mainly in urban centers.

58. LSA resolution
The variety known as "Ebonics," "African American Vernacular English" (AAVE), and "Vernacular Black English" and by other names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systems--spoken, signed, and written -- are fundamentally regular. … Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," "lazy," "defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English" are incorrect and demeaning.

59. LSA resolution
As affirmed in the LSA Statement of Language Rights (June l996), there are individual and group benefits to maintaining vernacular speech varieties and there are scientific and human advantages to linguistic diversity. For those living in the United States there are also benefits in acquiring Standard English and resources should be made available to all who aspire the mastery of Standard English. The Oakland School Board's commitment to helping students master Standard English is commendable.

60. Phonology - AAE (1) [wes said] ‘west side’ [kol k@ts] ‘cold cuts’
(2) [brn maI h{n] ‘burned my hand’
[mEs öp] ‘messed up’
(3) ‘hated’
‘shouted’

61. Phonology - AAE (3) [de] ‘they’ [d@] ‘the’ [d{t] ‘that’
(4) [nöfn] ‘nothing’
‘author’
[rUf] ‘Ruth’
[saUf] ‘south’

62. Phonology - AAE (5) [hEp] ‘help’ [ro] ‘roll’ [skuw] ‘school’
[fUbOw] ‘football’
(6) [{ks] ‘ask’
[gr{ps] ‘grasp’

63. Agreement - AAE (1) He need to get a book from the shelf.
She want us to pass the papers to the front.

64. Genitive - AAE
(1) The dog tail was wagging.
The man hat was old.

65. Copula deletion - AAE (1) That my Ø bike. The coffee Ø cold.
He Ø all right.

66. Habitual ‚be‘ - AAE (1) Do they be playing all day?
Yeah, the boys do be messin’ around a lot.
I see her when I be on my way to school.
The coffee be cold.
(2) a. The coffee cold.
b. The coffee be cold.
(3) *The coffee be cold right now.

67. Perfective ‚done‘ - AAE
(1) She done did it.
They done used all the good ones.
They done go.

68. Negative inversion - AAE
(1) Can’t nobody beat’em.
(2) Don’t nobody say nothin’ to dem peoples!
(3) Wasn’t nobody in there but em an’ him.
(4) Ain’t no white cop gonna put his hands on me.

69. Double negation - AAE (2) I ain’t go yesterday.
I didn’t have no lunch.
He don’t never go nowhere.

70. This is the end.